IB Resources

We compiled all the resources we create for International Baccalaureate students on this page. You can find study tips, wall planners for the academic year, interviews with our IB tutors, and video series on every aspect of the International Baccalaureate.

How to Maintain a Positive Mindset during Exam Season

Exam season can be exceptionally stressful. Here’s our advice to make sure you’re looking after yourself while doing your very best!

With deadlines, exams, IAs, and EEs, it can feel like there’s so much to do it might overwhelm you. It’s important to give yourself the breathing space to do well while maintaining a positive attitude and approach to revision and work, which allows you do your very best, without the risk of burning out or pushing yourself to your extremes.

We’ve compiled some key advice to help you support yourself during the hecticness of the exam period, but you should always try to speak with friends, family, a teacher, or a mental health advocate if you’re feeling anxious or like you can’t cope. You can find more information about organisations to contact at the bottom of this article.

Don’t compare yourself to others, only yourselfWorking on the same material, day-in day-out, with the same people, makes it easy to constantly judge your progress against your peers. It can be useful to look around and see where other people are, but with each person having such a different background and skill set, sometimes this kind of comparison may not be very helpful.

Instead of placing yourself in comparison to your friends and classmates, focus on comparing yourself to you in the past and seeing the progress you’ve made. Everyone starts out at different stages and so by judging your own progress, and not how you compare to the best in the class, you don’t lose sight of how far you’ve come.

Train your body, as well as mindPlato said ‘The body is the tomb of the soul.’ Neglecting your physical health can have a big impact on your ability to stay in a positive frame of mind. Not sleeping, getting by on a poor diet, and hardly moving all day can exacerbate feelings of anxiety. Apps like SleepCycle and FocusKeeper can help your sleep patterns or ensure you take regular breaks. Apps like ‘Zombies, Run!’ – as an alternative to Nike+ – can help distract you from thinking about mitosis or microeconomics while you exercise, or Carrot will jokingly insult you until your fighting-fit with short workouts you can do at home between revision sessions.

But you don’t need to become a triathlon competitor to stay healthy. Drink lots of water (instead of coffee or energy drinks); take regular breaks during which you get up and move; use the 20:20:20 rule to prevent eye strain (look at something 20 meters away, for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes), and you’ll begin to feel the the difference.

Reward yourselfExams are important: the have an impact on what you can do in the future, and you should try your best to succeed in them. But they’re not the only things you should focus on. Motivate yourself with post-exam rewards to celebrate all your hard work and help drive that final push: go the the cinema after your exam with other people from your class; order a pizza to the park and relax for a few hours. After your final exam, celebrate in a big way – have a party, go on holiday. Don’t forget that exams aren’t the be-all and end-all, life continues after they’re finished!

Make space for revisionRevising in your bedroom is a big no-no. It’s easy to get distracted: that poster of your favourite band leads to putting on their album to revise to, then you remember how good the video is for that song, then you’re watching all their videos, reading the comments and you’ve lost hours of revision time. Then, when you close your laptop and try to sleep, all you think about is the revision you haven’t done.

Find somewhere else to revise – the dining/living room, the study, your school/local library – and work there. That way, you don’t associate your bedroom with work (or get distracted by the things in it), but think of it instead as a work-free zone where you can truly relax.

Communicate with OthersMake it clear to your friends and family that you’re revising and can’t be interrupted, but also make clear when you’re free and can talk, have a coffee, or eat lunch. It’s another way to motivate yourself through your sessions (‘Just 30 mins and then I can have lunch with my friends’) and keep you distraction-free while you work, without boxing yourself away for weeks on end.

Use these opportunities to speak with other people about how you’re feeling too. If you’re stressed, and feel like you just can’t do any more work, speak with friends who are going through the same situation as you. Mums and Dads always want the best for you, and probably don’t know the amount of work you have to do. School friends and teachers can help you balance your time well and advise you when to take a break, all the while from a vantage point of knowing the amount of material you may still need to cover, and how much work can be reasonably covered in a day.

If you’re struggling to stay positive at any time, you should should speak to family, friends, or a teacher. If you feel like you don’t have someone to talk to, you can contact organisations likeYoungMinds, or speak with other students on platforms likeMeeToo.